Borucki Said He Is “Satisfied” By Kepler

Borucki Said He Is “Satisfied” By Kepler.The Discover Magazine (11/11, Powell, 314K), in an article titled “Kepler Spacecraft’s Successors Are Lining Up to Find Another Earth” for its December 2013 issue, reported Kepler is not currently hunting planets, Bill Borucki of the Ames Research Center said he has “a feeling of satisfaction” about the mission, adding, “The worry before we launched was that there were very few planets. That’s not true. We’re finding lots of planets of all sizes, including planets that may be full of life. We’re about to accomplish our objectives. So I’m just delighted.”

SPACE (11/11, Wall, 186K) described some of the missions that will “carry the burgeoning field” of exoplanet research “into the future” now that the Kepler telescope will possibly not make another observation. According to the article, all of the telescopes listed are “following in the footsteps of Kepler.” In order, these include the ESA’s Gaia and CHaracterizing ExOPlanets Satellite (Cheops), NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), and the Webb telescope. After those, exoplanet research prospects are “cloudy,” but could be continued with the WFIRST-AFTA and PLAnetary Transits and Oscillations of stars (Plato) spacecraft.